Ugh...PetCo

Both the PetCo and PetsMart near me appear to be decent--the conditions for the reptiles are right, the cages are clean, and the vast majority of the animals appear to be in good condition--you do see the occasional new import that isn't thriving, but if it's pointed out, it's taken into the back for special treatment--that doesn't involve a garbage can.

I think it IS important to remember that you can't lump all locations of a chain store into a single pile. One PetCo is not the same as another PetCo--they should really be treated as though they were completely seperate pet stores. One advantage is, if you see something wrong, you can report it to corporate.

Locally, there is one good, knowledgeable small pet store, some good PetCo and PetsMarts, some bad PetCo and PetSmarts, and several bad small pet stores (some absolutely horrible). I think the most 'interesting' thing I've seen was the Petland that had a tropical rainforest setup in a small exo-terra tall cage, and a white-striped gecko. All good, right? Well...it was sharing its home with a couple of leopard gecko hatchlings.

I'm lucky enough to live in the Toronto area, where there are a lot of experienced reptile keepers and bad shops simply don't last long enough to do much damage in the community. Plus, we don't have PetCo up here and PetCetera only sells fish.

The PetSmart on Stone Church road in Hamilton has a dedicated reptile guy, last time I was in they had a yearling BP. It was in a 'decent' sized enclosure, douglas fir substrate, but it had a half log hide. At least the half log was turned so that people couldn't see into it. The BP itself was alert and well fed, the girl working that section happened to be the one who has the most contact with the snake and she told me he'd shed a few days previous, it hadn't come off in one piece but she'd asked the reptile guy and he advised her to use the soaking method we advocate on this forum. She knew the sex of the snake (male, she'd witnessed the popping, in her words "really gross, but educational, eh?") and it's feeding schedule. All in all a solid B+.

There are two Big Al's that I frequent, a franchise location in Hamilton and a corporate location in Oakville. The one in Oakville doesn't carry BPs, but they have two full time employees for their reptile section who are very friendly and knowledgable. I was in recently and overheard one discussing with a customer a good starter lizard for her young son, he advised her of all the pros and cons of beardies (good with handling, but require large enclosures) and leopard geckos (stay small and easy to feed, but are VERY fragile). Their reptiles are in display racks with controlled temps and humidity, I witnessed one of their pine snakes shedding and it was a good one piece shed. I give this one an A.

The reptile authority for this area is said to be Port Credit Pet Centre in Port Credit, which is a small privately owned shop. I don't frequent this one often, but the owner is very active in the reptile community. I have heard disturbing things about their invertebrates from invert forums though. I don't know enough about them to give an opinion.